Journal of Arts and Culture

ISSN: 0976-9862 & E-ISSN: 0976-9870, Volume 3, Issue 3, 2012, pp.-126-128.

Available online at http://www.bioinfo.in/contents.php?id=53.

A STUDY OF PRE-HISTORIC STONE AGE PERIOD OF INDIA

DARADE S.S.
Mula Education Society's Arts, Commerce & Science College, Sonai, Newasa- 414105, MS, India
*Corresponding Author: Email- rb.kh03@rediffmail.com

Received: November 01, 2012; Accepted: December 06, 2012

Abstract- Tools crafted by proto-humans that have been dated back two million years have been discovered in the northwestern part of the
subcontinent. The ancient history of the region includes some of South Asia's oldest settlements and some of its major civilizations. The earli-
est archaeological site in the subcontinent is the palaeolithic hominid site in the Soan River valley. Soanian sites are found in the Sivalik region
across what are now India, Pakistan, and Nepal.
The Mesolithic period in the Indian subcontinent was followed by the Neolithic period, when more extensive settlement of the subcontinent
occurred after the end of the last Ice Age approximately 12,000 years ago. The first confirmed semipermanent settlements appeared 9,000
years ago in the Bhimbetka rock shelters in modern Madhya Pradesh, India.
Keywords- history, Mesolithic, Paleolithic, Indian

Citation: Darade S.S. (2012) A Study of Pre-Historic Stone Age Period of India. Journal of Arts and Culture, ISSN: 0976-9862 & E-ISSN: 0976
-9870, Volume 3, Issue 3, pp.-126-128.

Copyright: Copyright2012 Darade S.S. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Li-
cense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Introduction the north in Ethiopia, where it is bordered by grasslands. The clos-

The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period during which stone
was widely used in the manufacture of implements with a sharp
edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted roughly
2.5 million years, and ended between 4500 BC to 2000 BC with the
advent of metalworking. Stone Age artifacts include tools used by
humans and by their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as
well as the earlier partly contemporaneous genera Australo-
pithecus and Paranthropus. Bone tools were used during this peri-
od as well, but are more rarely preserved in the archaeological
record. The Stone Age is further subdivided by the types of stone
tools in use.
The Stone Age is the first of the three-age system of archaeology,
which divides human technological prehistory into three periods
[Table-1].
The Stone Age
The Bronze Age
The Iron Age
Table 1- Pre History
Palaeolithic Age or Mesolithic Age or Neolithic Age or
Old stone age Late Stone Age New Stone age
(500,000-10,000 BC) (10,000-4,000 BC) (6,000-1,000 BC)
Historical Significance
The Stone Age is nearly contemporaneous with the evolution of the
genus Homo, the only exception possibly being at the very begin-
ning, when species prior to Homo may have manufactured tools.
According to the age and location of the current evidence, the cra-
dle of the genus is the East African Rift System, especially toward
est relative among the other living Primates, the genus Pan, repre-
sents a branch that continued on in the deep forest, where the
primates evolved. The rift served as a conduit for movement into
southern Africa and also north down the Nile into North Africa and
through the continuation of the rift in the Levant to the vast grass-
lands of Asia.
Starting from about 3 mya a single biome established itself from
South Africa through the rift, North Africa, and across Asia to Chi-
na, which has been called "transcontinental 'savannahstan'" recent-
ly [1]. Starting in the grasslands of the rift, the ancestors of man
found an ecological niche as a tool-maker and developed a de-
pendence on it. Homo erectus, the predecessor of modern hu-
mans, became a "tool equipped savanna dweller" [2].
Neolithic or the New Stone Age
The main period of the Neolithic Age in the Indian subcontinent
was 4000-1800 BC. This was the food producing age when man
completely changed his way of life. Traces of Neolithic communi-
ties have survived mostly in the north-western region and the Dec-
can. Neolithic settlements in Baluchistan seem to be oldest around
3500 BC. In the new way of life man began to domesticate animals
and cultivate plants. The dog, sheep and goat were probably the
first to be domesticated.
Among plants, wheat and barley were the earliest cereals grown.
As a result man began to settle down in certain selected areas.
This led to the growth of villages and farming communities. The
tools he needed also changed. All these developments took place
first in north western India and culminated in the rise and growth of

Journal of Arts and Culture

ISSN: 0976-9862 & E-ISSN: 0976-9870, Volume 3, Issue 3, 2012
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 A Study of Pre-Historic Stone Age Period of India
great Indus Civilization while the rest of the Indian subcontinent
was late in undergoing the transition from Mesolithic to the Neolith-
ic and then to the Chalcolithic periods.
Stone Age in India
The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Ho-
mo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids
including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus
Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern
part of the Indian subcontinent from c. 3300 to 1300 BCE in pre-
sent-day Pakistan and northwest India, was the first major civiliza-
tion in South Asia. A sophisticated and technologically advanced
urban culture developed in the Mature Harappan period, from 2600
to 1900 BCE [3]. This Bronze Age civilization collapsed before the
end of the second millennium BCE and was followed by the Iron
Age Vedic Civilization, which extended over much of the Indo-
Gangetic plain and which witnessed the rise of major polities
known as the Mahajanapadas. In one of these kingdoms,
Magadha, Mahavira and Gautama Buddha were born in the 6th or
5th century BCE and propagated their ramanic philosophies.
Most of the subcontinent was conquered by the Maurya Empire
during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. It became fragmented, with
various parts ruled by numerous Middle kingdoms for the next
1,500 years. This is known as the classical period of Indian history,
during which time India has sometimes been estimated to have
had the largest economy of the ancient and medieval world, with its
huge population generating between one fourth and one third of
the world's income up to the 18th century.
Much of northern and central India was united in the 4th century
CE, and remained so for two centuries, under the Gupta Empire.
This period, witnessing a Hindu religious and intellectual resur-
gence, is known among its admirers as the "Golden Age of India".
From this time, and for several centuries afterwards, southern In-
dia, under the rule of the Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas, and Pan-
dyas, experienced its own golden age. During this period, aspects
of Indian civilization, administration, culture, and religion (Hinduism
and Buddhism) spread to much of Asia.
The southern state of Kerala had maritime business links with the
Roman Empire from around 77 CE. Islam was introduced in Kerala
through this route by Muslim traders. Muslim rule in the subconti-
nent began in 712 CE when the Arab general Muhammad bin
Qasim conquered Sindh and Multan in southern Punjab in modern
day Pakistan [4], setting the stage for several successive invasions
from Central Asia between the 10th and 15th centuries CE, leading
to the formation of Muslim empires in the Indian subcontinent such
as the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire.
Mughal rule came from Central Asia to cover most of the northern
parts of the subcontinent. Mughal rulers introduced Central Asian
art and architecture to India. In addition to the Mughals and various
Rajput kingdoms, several independent Hindu states, such as the
Vijayanagara Empire, the Maratha Empire, Eastern Ganga Empire
and the Ahom Kingdom, flourished contemporaneously in south-
ern, western,eastern and northeastern India respectively. The
Mughal Empire suffered a gradual decline in the early 18th century,
which provided opportunities for the Afghans, Balochis, Sikhs, and
Marathas to exercise control over large areas in the northwest of
the subcontinent until the British East India Company gained as-
cendancy over South Asia.
Journal of Arts and Culture
ISSN: 0976-9862 & E-ISSN: 0976-9870, Volume 3, Issue 3, 2012
Bioinfo Publications
Beginning in the mid-18th century and over the next century, large
areas of India were annexed by the British East India Company.
Dissatisfaction with Company rule led to the Indian Rebellion of
1857, after which the British provinces of India were directly admin-
istered by the British Crown and witnessed a period of both rapid
development of infrastructure and economic decline. During the
first half of the 20th century, a nationwide struggle for independ-
ence was launched by the Indian National Congress and later
joined by the Muslim League. The subcontinent gained independ-
ence from the United Kingdom in 1947, after the British provinces
were partitioned into the dominions of India and Pakistan and the
princely states all acceded to one of the new states.
Isolated remains of Homo erectus in Hathnora in the Narmada
Valley in central India indicate that India might have been inhabited
since at least the Middle Pleistocene era, somewhere between
500,000 and 200,000 years ago.
Tools crafted by proto-humans that have been dated back two
million years have been discovered in the northwestern part of the
subcontinent. The ancient history of the region includes some of
South Asia's oldest settlements and some of its major civilizations.
The earliest archaeological site in the subcontinent is the palaeo-
lithic hominid site in the Soan River valley. Soanian sites are found
in the Sivalik region across what are now India, Pakistan, and Ne-
pal.
The Mesolithic period in the Indian subcontinent was followed by
the Neolithic period, when more extensive settlement of the sub-
continent occurred after the end of the last Ice Age approximately
12,000 years ago. The first confirmed semipermanent settlements
appeared 9,000 years ago in the Bhimbetka rock shelters in mod-
ern Madhya Pradesh, India.
Early Neolithic culture in South Asia is represented by the Mehr-
garh findings (7000 BCE onwards) in present-day Balochistan,
Pakistan. Traces of a Neolithic culture have been alleged to be
submerged in the Gulf of Khambat in India, radiocarbon dated to
7500 BCE. However, the one dredged piece of wood in question
was found in an area of strong ocean currents. Neolithic agriculture
cultures sprang up in the Indus Valley region around 5000 BCE, in
the lower Gangetic valley around 3000 BCE, and in later South
India, spreading southwards and also northwards into Malwa
around 1800 BCE. The first urban civilization of the region began
with the Indus Valley Civilization.
Culture is how a society lives. The pattern on which the cultures
are divided is based on the sophistication of tools (technology).
Thus Paleolithic society had larger cruder tools which became
smaller and refined in the Mesolithic and further developed in the
Neolithic society. Chalcolithic saw use of both stone and metal
(Bronze, Copper) tools [Table-2].
Table 2- Paleolithic Age
Lower Palaeolithic Middle Palaeolithic Upper Palaeolithic
Culture Culture Culture
(5,00,000 - 100,00 BC) (100,000 - 40,000 BC) (40,000 - 10,000 BC)
Homo erectus
Homo erectus lived in the Soanian sites, named after river Soan in
the middle Pleistocene in the Sivalik region spanning the modern
Pakistan, India and Nepal. It was first reported by de Terra and
Paterson in 1939. The age of this culture can be dated from 300-
400,000 BC to the end of Pleistocene epoch.
127
 Darade S.S.

Homo sapiens ysis). Earliest evidence of modern Homo sapiens were found in the
Homo sapiens arrived in South Asia between 70,000 and 50,000 cave sites in Sri Lanka. The Bhimbetka cave sites in Madhya Pra-
years ago. The Homo sapiens further spread across South East desh shows cave paintings and are dated to 7000 years ago
Asia and reached Australia around 40,000 years ago (mtDNA anal- (Upper Paleolithic) [Table-3].

Table 3- Pre Historic Phases

Stone Age Primary Culture Major Site Importance
Lower Flakes, Kashmir, Punjab, Whole India except Sind and Kerala. Mainly in -Head axe and pebble tools, Fossil of Homo erectus
Palaeolithic Chopper Chopping Culture Sohan (Punjab), Singrauli basin (UP), Chhotanagpur (Jharkhand), from Hathnaura (Narmada basin)
Assam, Narmada, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka. -Represented by Sohan Culture (now in Pakistan)

Middle Palaeolithic Scraper/Booer Culture Navasa (Maharashtra), Didwana (Rajasthan), Bhimbetka (MP), -Varieties of Blades, Points, Borer and Scraper
Bankura and Purulia (WB), Narmada Valley etc. made of Flakes.
- 200 rock shelters and caves are located on Bhim-
betka hills having thousands of paintings.

Upper Palaeolithic Blade and Burin Culture A.P. (Kurnool, Chittor) Karnataka, Central MP, Jharkhan Plateau, - The age of Neanderthal Man
U.P., Rajasthan, Gujrat - Earlier "Homo Sapiens"
- Harpoon, blade tools from Renugunta (A.P.)
- Bone tools from Kurnool.

Meslithic Age Microliths Culture or Fluting Karnataka, Rajasthan (Bagor, Tilwara), Gujrat (Langhanj), M.P., - Microlith (a great technological development,
& Gometrical tools Tamil Nadu, West Bengal (Birbhanpur), U.P. (Sarai Nahar Rai) introduction of compound tools)
- Man still a savage but pottery maing (Tilwara) and
permanent habitation found, still a hunder, fisher.

Neolithic Age Polished tool culture Kashmir (Burzahom, Gufkral), Assam (Daojili Hading), Garohill Me- - Earlies Farming community
ghalaya, Bihar (Chirand), Peninsular India, Amri, Kotdiji, Mehargarh - Kinship became the basis of social organisation
etc - Pit dwelling houses
- Food begain to be cooked by fire
-Evidence of dogs, circular huts made of bamboo,
bone-tools, hand made pottery etc
- Also called "Neolithic Revolution"
-Boat making, spinning cotton and wool.

Neolithic [6] Schick Kathy D., Nicholas Toth (1993) Making Silent Stones
The aceramic neolithic lasted from 7000 to 5500 BCE. The ceramic Speak: Human Evolution and the Dawn of Technology. New
neolithic lasted till about 3000BCE and blended with the early Ha- York.
rappan (Early Bronze age). The oldest neolithic sites in India have [7] Shea John J. (2010) Out of Africa I: the First Hominin Coloniza-
been found at Lahuradewa in middle Ganges region and Jhusi tion of Eurasia, Springer, New York, 47-64.
near the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna (7100 BCE).
In the South India, the neolithic culture began around 3000 BCE till
1400BCE and merged into Iron Age skipping the Bronze Age but
instead having a Megalithic period. In Adichannalur in TN, 12 burial
urns with Brahmi script have been recovered containing human
skulls and bones with husks, grains of rice and neolithic celts con-
firming that it belongs to the neolithic period. Below is a map of
some of the major Stone Age Sites. I have marked the approximate
locations of the sites. Some names may be difficult to read as I had
to keep the image small.

References
[1] Barham Lawrence, Mitchell Peter (2008) Cambridge World
Archaeology, Oxford.
[2] Belmaker Miriam (2006) Community Structure through Time:
'Ubeidiya, a Lower Pleistocene Site as a Case Study (Thesis),
Paleoanthropology Society.
[3] Clark J. Desmond (1970) Ancient People and Places, 72.
[4] Deacon Hilary John, Deacon Janette (1999) Walnut Creek,
Calif, Altamira Press.
[5] Rogers Michael J., Semaw Sileshi (2009) Sourcebook of
Paleolithic Transitions: Methods, Theories and Interpretations.
New York: Springer.

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Bioinfo Publications 128